


Kiss Me

by edibleflowers



Category: Popslash
Genre: M/M, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-15
Updated: 2012-09-15
Packaged: 2017-11-14 07:48:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/512953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edibleflowers/pseuds/edibleflowers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chris has a plan. A plan that involves lots of sex. What could go wrong?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kiss Me

**Author's Note:**

> I've been meaning to write a group slut fic. This just sort of happened. Damn bunnies. The club they're in might or might not be a certain Funky Buddha in Cleveland. A phrase or two might be ripped from Calico and Rhys, of whom I live in awe, and it's meant as homage, truly. Also, some suspense of disbelief will be required eventually. thanks to *sunnie for beta'ing. 
> 
> Some situations in this fic could be considered dub-con.

It all started when Chris went around one day kissing everyone.

Justin was first, early that morning; Chris grabbed him while he was eating breakfast in his room, locked an arm around his neck, and gave him a loud, smacking, wet kiss on the cheek. "Fuck!" Justin yelled, wiping furiously at the dampened skin, while Chris laughed and ran, hooting, from the hotel room. Face stinging from his impromptu ablutions and from the sudden flush of embarrassment, he bent over his Cheerios again and thought dark thoughts about getting back at Chris.

Lance was the next, and Chris loved the bemused surprise that filled the pale green eyes when he snuck up on him, put his arms around Lance's neck -- Lance was bent over the tiny table on the bus, deep in paperwork, already looking tired even though he'd only been at it for an hour -- and pressed a warm, chaste kiss to his jaw, right at the curve under his ear. Lance turned to look, blinking; Chris saw the half-smile that crossed his face and grinned back, went off in search of his next victim.

He found the others in the back of the bus; JC had his legs tucked up underneath him, a keyboard on his lap, and notebook paper strewn on the couch around him. Across the aisle, Joey sat on the floor, alternating between _Final Fantasy 9_ , which Chris had gotten him hooked on two weeks ago, and a two-way message conversation with someone.

Chris plunked himself down on the couch next to JC first, waiting until JC looked over, muttering, "hey, you're sitting on my lyrics--"

"Sorry," Chris said, sounding not at all sorry, and leaned over before JC could pull back, planting a quick kiss on his lips. JC did pull back then, after a moment where he froze in startled place, and then Chris got up and flopped into Joey's lap.

"Hey--" Joey laughed, pausing his game, "what the hell are you doing?"

"Nothin'," Chris said. When Joey pushed at him, he rolled away, grabbed Joey's hand, moved in and brushed his lips over Joey's forehead. JC was still blinking at them as Chris grinned, stood, and headed back up towards the front of the bus.

"What was that about?" JC said.

"Beats me."

* * *

"Dude, what the hell are you on?"

"Nothing, I'm just in a good mood. Can't I be in a good mood once in a while?"

"I thought that was scheduled for the next eclipse of the sun," JC said, acerbic. Chris winced.

"Screw you, C. See if I kiss you again."

"My heart is breaking."

"You can kiss me again," Justin said, a bit too quickly. Joey laughed, raising his arms to let JC fix the wire of his microphone under the back of his shirt.

Chris raised a speculative eyebrow. "You liked it, huh, Jup? You think I'm gorgeous, you want to kiss me," he started chanting, causing the others to go into spasms of laughter, because they'd watched Miss Congeniality last night and it was still fresh in their heads. Justin blushed, his face shuttering, and he turned away to the pinball machines, trying to ignore the others.

But just before the show, when they were standing on the platform waiting for the video clips to finish, Justin felt Chris's hand brush his in the darkness, and a warm mouth press to his, tongue licking into the corner of his surprised smile. Justin's heart raced; he squeezed Chris's hand, and then the platform began to move, the crowd's roar overwhelming every other sensation but the feel of Chris squeezing back, and Justin thought there couldn't possibly be anything better than Chris kissing him as the show was about to begin.

* * *

"You kissed Justin." Joey's tone was soft, almost thoughtful. Chris looked up from buttoning his fly, nodded; seemed useless to deny it.

Stood there, then, transfixed by the dark look on Joey's face. "Joey," he said, "we only have thirty seconds--" They could hear Anthony yelling just beyond the curtains; thirty seconds was an exaggeration.

"Okay," Joey said, and moved up to Chris, his hands big and hot on Chris's shoulders, and Chris looked up at Joey, at his eyes glittering and sexual and _oh fuck_ , Chris thought, just before Joey's mouth came down on his.

There was enough time for a press of tongues, dipping and tasting, and then Joey was pulling back, breathing hard, and giving Chris the faintest smile before disappearing through the curtain. Chris adjusted himself, thinking _what the hell did I get myself into?_ , and followed.

* * *

His curiosity about when the others would come to him was answered after the show. JC curled up on him during the bus ride back to the hotel, offering livewire kisses and a gentle embrace. Lance watched them, still scrubbing at his hair with a towel, his eyes pensive, a hard, heavy gaze.

In the hotel, Joey and Justin walking ahead to talk about where they wanted to go out, JC kept his arm wrapped around Chris's waist, gave him another soft kiss before breaking off to head into his room. Chris kept walking, peripherally aware of Lance at his side. When he stopped at his own door, yelling down the hall for the others to let him know where they were headed, Lance stopped with him, still and silent. Chris looked up at him, eyebrows raised.

"Yeah?" he said, fumbling the keycard into the slot. Lance's smile curved at the corner of his mouth, and he stepped forward, meeting an unresisting Chris, both still sweaty and damp from the show. Lance's kiss was different than the others, Chris thought with the small part of his mind still capable of rational thought; it was warm, smooth where Joey had been rough, knowing where Justin had been innocent, dark where JC had been light. At the end of it, Chris was out of breath; also, he was pretty sure his knees had turned to goo.

Lance gave him a feline smile, ran a hand through Chris's limp hair, and stepped back, moving with lithe grace down the hall toward his own room. Chris heaved a deep breath and watched him go.

\---

Joey and Justin had finally decided on a club, recommended by a local crew-member who said that the place had a fantastic electronica night on Thursdays. For a change, they all went, even JC, who usually crashed after a show.

Watching Chris grind into Joey from behind, the pair of them nigh indistinguishable from the rest of the crowd out on the packed dance floor, JC couldn't help but think it was a little weird. Wondered if maybe there was something he'd been missing, because Joey didn't seem to mind, and after a little while he turned around and they were dancing together and there was no way anyone could pretend anything else. He found himself speculating what Chris would feel like, heated and slippery from dancing, a firebrand being of pure energy.

"Playing with fire," Lance said in his ear, and he jumped a little.

"What?" he croaked.

"Them," Lance said, louder, closer, hot breath tickling JC's ear. "Joe and Chris. Kinda hot, huh?"

JC nodded, his tongue feeling thick and awkward in his suddenly dry mouth. "What do you think Chris is doing?"

"Taking it up a notch," Lance replied. When JC looked at them again, he saw the dark heads bent together, lights flashing over them and away, lasers and smoke obscuring the view, but JC thought there might be more kissing involved. He remembered how it had felt to kiss Chris earlier, on the bus, how it had heated him all the way down. He thought that what he felt now might be some strange mixture of jealousy and desire.

"Fucking A," he said, quietly, commentary on everything and nothing, and finished his beer. Lance was still there; JC could feel the heat of the compact, muscular body beside him, leg pressed to his. Still remembering the taste of Chris, he turned his head to ask what Lance thought about Chris's actions and found his lips meeting Lance's.

His first instinct was to jerk away, but Lance's hand came up, gripping the back of his neck, and suddenly all he wanted to was acquiesce, to melt into Lance's heat and smell and skin. Lance's lips were smooth and warm, his tongue licking against JC's lips in a way that made JC open up to him unquestioningly, and JC became aware that he was sporting a hard-on the likes of which he'd never felt before. _And that's a lot_ , he thought dimly, as Lance's other hand sifted through his hair, the deep rumble of satisfaction from Lance's throat transferring sensation to him, the close atmosphere of the club pressing in on them like a heavy blanket.

JC realized he ought to be caring about the fact that, even though they were in the semi-private VIP area, there were still people there who could see them, and management would have fits, and there could be bad consequences, really bad ones, but something in him didn't want to care, because this was now, this intense moment, and he was so wildly excited that nothing else mattered. His hand came up to Lance's shoulder, curving around the deltoid muscle bared by a sleeveless shirt, holding him hard and close.

Lance jerked forward suddenly, his mouth bruising JC's, breaking the kiss with a gasp. Blinking up, JC saw Justin -- his hand lowering from where he'd apparently given Lance a light smack upside the head -- with a disturbed look on his face. JC wiped his mouth, _fuck_ , wet from Lance's kisses, while Lance scowled at Justin. "What the fuck, infant--"

"Guys, get a room, there are people watching," Justin hissed, his eyes smoldering. JC thought that sounded like the best idea he'd heard all day, then wondered dazedly where that thought had come from. First thing this morning, he'd never have even thought that kissing Lance might be the most appealing notion in the world--

"Jesus," he said softly, touching Lance's shoulder again. Lance wrenched a fascinated gaze away from Justin, looked slowly up JC's body to meet silvery eyes gone dark with longing.

"Yeah," Lance said in dazed agreement, and they sat apart for the rest of the night, a torturous hour or two until the limo came back and collected them sometime around three in the morning. By then, Chris and Joey were touching constantly, their eyes fiery whenever they looked at each other, and Justin was alive with glowering tension. JC had to adjust himself as he sat down by the window, appreciating it when Lance sat far across the seat, leaving at least a foot of space between them. Hating that distance, at the same time that he was grateful for it.

"Am I the only one who thinks this is weird?" he asked after a while, seeing that Lance's attention had transferred to Justin, and that Justin was looking back in a way that made JC's chest tighten. He wanted Lance for his own, he wanted Justin to look at _him_ like that--

"That what is weird?" Chris said, disengaging from Joey's lips for a moment.

"This." JC gestured around the limo, his hand's motion encompassing Chris's climb onto Joey's lap, Justin's hand sleeking steadily across Lance's knee. "This. We're all, like, all over each other."

"Dude, you know, it's not like we never touch," Justin said, a little sullen.

"Yeah, but not like this." JC watched Joey's hand press smoothly down Chris's back, the fingers dipping under the shirt's hem, exposing a strip of pale flesh. JC took a deep breath and tried to focus, looking away from Joey's hand under Chris's shirt. His gaze fell on Lance, whose eyes were half-closed, Justin pressed close to him now on the cross seat, Justin's hand moving steadily up Lance's thigh.

JC wondered how he'd suddenly become the voice of reason. "Justin, you like girls," he tried to point out.

"Yeah, so? I like guys too," Justin replied calmly, his voice low and thick. Lance closed his eyes, trembling.

"Not -- not before tonight, you never did, and Joey, what about you? You're straight."

"Straight but not narrow." Joey's voice was hoarse; Chris was licking his ear. JC stared resolutely at the floor, breathing through his mouth, the limo suddenly hot and smelling like sex to him.

"Jesus Christ," he tried to say, except it came out as "Jesus Chris," and Chris laughed, peeled himself away from Joey, crawled across the floor to him.

"Come on, C, don't fight it." He grabbed JC's ankle, holding on when JC tried to shake him free, his fingers slipping up into the pant leg, scorching the skin above the sock. "Fuck, JC, who cares, just go with it," Chris urged, his hand stroking, the other hand on his knee, reaching, and JC shrank back in the seat, but there was nowhere to go, he was trapped with Chris creeping up his legs, climbing him like a tree, and he didn't want to get away, he wanted Chris to touch him, especially to feel those small nimble fingers pressing into the waistband of his pants like they were doing now--

He tried to move, but every struggle only made Chris clamp down on him more firmly, his body hot and twisty on JC's lap. JC closed his eyes, attempting to think of other things, like motorcycle engines or physics or, or the best way to get slugs out of a garden, which he'd been reading in the paper earlier today, but it wasn't working. With his eyes closed, the sounds were even more intense: the noise of kissing, wet sounds, someone groaning faintly, a growl of pleasure, Joey's voice murmuring Justin's name; and JC couldn't do anything but surrender now, whether he wanted to or not.

And oh, did he want.

Chris was unbuttoning his shirt when the limo pulled to a stop at the garage entrance of the hotel. One of the bodyguards opened the door, trained eyes carefully not seeing whatever was happening inside, which was fortunate, JC thought, because Justin's hands were in Lance's pants, Joey's shirt had come off, and Chris's jeans were unbuttoned (when had that happened? he couldn't remember). Panting, they put their clothes in order, Justin leaping out of the limo first with Lance close on his heels. Joey was behind them, and Chris pulled on JC's hand, tugging him after the others.

He followed, resistance pretty much gone. Some part of him had pointed out that who cared why it was all happening, because it felt damn good and he hadn't gotten laid in a while anyway, and at least it was someone he cared about -- four someones -- so what did it matter, as long as they enjoyed themselves and no-one got hurt. They stumbled down the hall into the elevator, Joey pressing Lance against the back wall before Chris had even pushed the button for their floor, the kiss hot and thorough and decidedly nasty, and Justin was leaning on JC now, one hand in his back pocket and the other sliding over his bare belly, under the shirt, rubbing his nipples into hardness. JC moaned softly, closing his eyes and letting his head fall back against the elevator wall.

The elevator jerked into motion. JC felt warmth on his other side -- Chris picking up where he'd left off, apparently, his hand slipping into JC's jeans, tugging out the shirt where it was still tucked in, while Justin's lips nuzzled his throat, heated and moist. Justin's hand disappeared, and for a moment JC mourned it, but then Chris's hand slid into his pants, his fingers brushing into kinky hair, fuck, JC let out a noise that made Chris laugh darkly in response. He heard an answering sound from Lance. Opening his eyes, he saw, first, Justin's hand firmly settled on Chris's ass -- _so that's where it went_ \-- and then that Joey was moving down Lance's chest, Lance's shirt puddled on the floor, and his chest glistening from the streaks of Joey's tongue. _Fuck_ , that was hot.

When the sexless voice announced the floor number, it took a moment for them to grab at clothes, Chris yanking his hand out of JC's pants a little too quickly and hissing as the rough denim caught at his skin. This time Chris led the way, Justin pulling a keycard from his pocket because his room was the closest and, due to some quirk in room assignments, also the biggest. Earlier, they'd laughed while Justin strutted and proclaimed that he had the best room because he was the "supahstah"; then Chris had tackled and tickled him breathless. Looking at him now, Justin didn't want Chris to tickle him; he wanted Chris to blow him, or maybe to have his own lips wrapped around Chris's cock, and even the idea of someone else fucking his ass was a serious turn-on.

He could see, briefly, why JC had resisted -- although he wasn't fighting much now, not with the way he was pulling Chris into the room, stripping the older man's shirt off -- because it was true, he'd never really even looked at guys as a sexual option before. But he didn't much care now, he was so excited by it all. He slid into place behind JC, licking at his long neck, liking how JC arched his head back a little, and ran his hands up across JC's chest. JC's hands had moved to Chris's nipples, and Chris reached back around JC to stroke at Justin. Justin ground his hips, his aching hard dick, into JC's ass. Looking over Chris's shoulder, he saw that Joey had Lance back on one of the beds, Lance's pants were open, his quivering red cock stiff in Joey's hand, and _holy shit_ , the sight nearly made Justin come in his jeans like a fucking fifteen-year-old.

Justin yanked JC's shirt off, wanting, needing to feel the hot skin against his own, realizing at the same time that he still had his muscle shirt on -- Chris was tugging at it now, and he paused to grab it by the hems and strip himself before re-aligning himself with JC's back, fuck, yeah, that was fantastic, JC glowing with need, alive with desire, humming under his hands. Justin pushed a leg between JC's thighs, felt a rush of gratification when JC opened for him just like that. He loved the heat of JC's chest, the play of muscles under his skin; how JC moaned and arched his head back, sweet smoke-scented hair brushing back against Justin's face, when Justin worked his stiff nipples, and Chris was doing something--

He opened his eyes, looked over JC's shoulder, down the planes of his chest. Chris had opened JC's fly, tugged his pants down enough to expose the erection that they always made fun of him for during concerts. But goddamn, it was fucking prodigious, and a gorgeous sight to see now, especially in Chris's capable hands. Lance moaned in the background, a heady counterpoint, as Chris slipped his mouth down around JC's cock. Justin whimpered, watching Chris, his wet mouth glistening, his eyes closed as if he were savoring it; JC trembled against him, thrumming, taut as a bowstring, his hands sunk into Chris's wild hair. Justin could almost feel it through JC's body, the damp heat of Chris's mouth on JC's cock, and he rolled his hips against JC's ass, moving his fingers over JC's chest in time with the rhythm Chris was evolving, and JC's hips bucked sharply and Justin could have sworn the orgasm came through him, JC so taut against him that he felt like part of the same body.

Chris definitely felt it, because he nearly gagged on it. JC stumbled, reaching for Chris, pulling him back up, and while they kissed, Justin wrapped his arms around JC's waist, pressing his face to the shoulderblades so close to the skin. JC reached back for him, turned his head and met Justin's rising mouth in a sudden kiss that went from sweet to brutal in under two seconds. Chris let JC go, watched them for a few moments -- they were weirdly hot, exploring each other with new eyes and a newfound need, but Chris wanted to see what Joey tasted like now.

Joey and Lance were still sprawled out on the one bed, and Chris grinned to see that Lance was very close to coming himself, what with Joey sliding one large hand over his dick, whispering what was undoubtedly some pretty trashy shit in his ear; Lance arched his hips up from the bed, pushing into Joey's hand, one hand grasping at Joey's bared shoulder. Climbing to the bed, Chris laid down on Lance's other side, capturing his mouth in a rough kiss. Lance whimpered, moaned into his mouth, and bit Chris's lip when he came.

"Goddamn," Joey said, soft and amazed, his breath harsh on Chris's neck. Chris smiled down at Lance, at the stunned green eyes that looked back up to him and then over to Joey, and they moved as one to push Joey back to the bed, working in tandem to relieve him of his jeans. Lance pulled at Chris's shirt when Chris bent over Joey to kiss him, so Chris stopped long enough to get himself undressed as well, sighing with relief as his erection at last came free of his tight shorts. Then he slid back down atop Joey, burning skin scorching his own, dick hard against his. Joey's hands came up, pinning his waist, big fingers dragging at his skin to keep him in place.

Lance moved in behind him, applying wet lips to his spine, a long line of tongue all the way down, and Chris shuddered hard against Joey, who swallowed his moans, one hand in his hair, holding him there. "Fuck, Chris," Lance murmured, his mouth somewhere down around the base of Chris's spine, "you do taste like sugar." Chris had a moment to be astonished at Lance's presence of mind; then the talented tongue dipped lower, and the last rational thought in his head scattered, lost.

The world shattered: heat branding him, sensation overloading him from Lance's tongue digging into him, sliding, hot and wet and rasping, fucking _fucking_ him with his tongue. Chris climbed into Joey's skin, pushing desperate hips against his, the friction of Joey's erection hot and right there and the sweetness of Lance's nasty mouth -- that was it, he came, sudden and hard, making wordless noises into Joey's skin, his whole body on fire for a few incredible moments.

Sliding to the side, curled into Joey and the heat, he watched as Lance took his place, claiming his own turn with lazy swipes of his tongue down Joey's chest, Joey trembling and moaning underneath him, everything about Joey newly erotic and sensual. The bed creaked again. Chris raised his head, saw Justin with one knee on the edge, down at the foot of the bed, black-eyed with need, and blinked, puzzled. Turned to look at JC, who was collapsed on the other bed, just watching now. He lifted his eyebrows in invitation, but JC shook his head, smiling, one hand lazily moving on his returning erection. Chris slipped off the bed anyway, moving behind JC and wrapping an arm around his waist. Comfortable, to lay together like this, watching the others.

Lance's mouth slipped down on Joey's dick, moving with a sure easy rhythm, making Joey clutch at the sheets and cry out; Justin climbed all the way on the bed, his hands touching Lance's hips, skating lightly over his back. Lance jumped, lifting his head for a moment, turned back to look at Justin.

"Please," Justin said, his voice dark and hoarse. "Can I?"

"Yeah," Lance said. The rich depth of it gave Justin chills. He glanced around then, realizing late that he wasn't prepared, but then Chris appeared out of nowhere, wild-haired and wild-eyed, pressing something into his hand, his travel kit still dangling from the other hand.

"Here," Chris said, winking, "give him one for me," over the slurping sound of Lance sucking hard on Joey. Justin grinned back, tugging Chris close for a quick kiss, full of promise, and then busied himself putting the condom on, getting himself lubed up.

He couldn't bring himself to do to Lance what Lance had done to Chris -- he wasn't quite ready for that yet, but he liked the way his slick fingers made glistening trails on Lance's perfect skin, loved how Lance moaned around Joey's cock when Justin slipped an exploratory finger in. Fuck, tight heat, muscle clamping down on him, Justin thought he was going to die. "God, you are so fucking hot," he breathed, easing the finger deeper, Lance's reaction encouraging him to try two fingers now, sleek and moist with plenty of lube.

"Fuck, Justin, fucking do it," Lance breathed, lifting his wet mouth from Joey for a moment. Joey looked up over Lance's shoulder, his eyes pulling Justin forward. Justin put his hands on Lance's hips, smooth skin warm under his fingertips, and began to push.

"Jesus," JC breathed beside Chris, who had resumed his place on the bed and was now idly stroking JC's cock. "It's. fuck."

"yeah," Chris murmured, licking JC's neck in an absent way. His eyes were fixed on the three as well, not that he could have been paid to look anywhere else right at that moment. Lance grunted, suddenly, Joey thrusting up into his mouth and gripping a handful of hair as he came, and the rippling sound brought JC over, mumbling, "oh, fuck, yeah, yeah, Chris, oh, yeah," at the same time. Justin kept moving, pushing, hard up against Lance now, thigh to thigh, and Lance pressed his face to Joey's thigh and made noises strangled somewhere between pain and pleasure.

It was, Chris thought with some amusement, thoroughly beautiful, the way it had all come together. Certainly Justin and Lance were a work of art, though one that would never be hung on any museum wall, Justin's skin sweatslick and fevered, rendering him a glistening Adonis in the hotel room's stark lights, and Lance trembling and lost to everything but the intense feelings. Plus, Chris had an armful of warm, sleepy JC to hold while he watched the youngest member of the group fuck the second-youngest one senseless, and on the whole, he couldn't really think of anything better.

Justin's motion pushed Lance up along Joey, who held him firm; when Lance grabbed his own erection and jerked quick and fast, bringing himself off in a few sudden movements, Justin couldn't hold back his own orgasm any longer. It felt like the top of his head was coming off, and when he spiraled back down from the spinning edge, he had just enough energy to collapse beside Lance instead of on top of him.

Joey yanked at the covers, someone mumbling something about getting the lights, and Justin felt himself fading fast into unconsciousness. As he drifted off, he thought he heard a sleepy "love you" murmured somewhere, but couldn't place the voice. _Weird_ , he thought, and then was gone.

* * *

JC woke up first, unusual but not entirely unheard of, the next morning. The strangeness of a warm body next to him was enough to wake him up quickly, but then he saw it was Chris and nearly leapt from the bed in surprise.

"It wasn't a fucking dream," he repeated to himself several times in the shower, and, "fuck. fuck. fuck."

He wondered if it would be weird at breakfast -- in Joey's room, as usual -- but, slouching down to join the others at the appointed time, he was relieved to see that Lance didn't look the least bit appealing to him. Justin was grumpy, Chris disheveled and snarly, Joey merely stolid and quiet. He hoped that the whole thing had just been a bad dream after all.

That illusion shattered when Joey got up from the table after eating, gave Lance a drowsy kiss on the forehead (which elicited a sleepy smile), and disappeared to get his stuff together.

\---

Then they had to get out to the bus and on the road, and he didn't have any time to question it because they were hurrying to make the schedule, so Lance ended up on their bus by mistake. He and Justin promptly collapsed in a bunk together, and try as he might, JC couldn't erase the image from last night of Justin fucking Lance hard, Lance flushed and quivering and crying out--

It had to be something affecting them, he thought, unable to let it go, though Chris pressed his shoulder and told him to get some rest before disappearing into the back. There had to be some reason for them all to do this, because it wasn't normal for Joey and Justin to like boys, and Lance had never done anything to suggest he was interested in the others; even Chris, who'd never been totally straight, had never made any moves on any of them, no matter his state of mind or lack thereof, and Chris was easily the most touchy-feely of them all.

 _Huh. Can't even keep my thoughts together today_ , he mused, finding his rarely-used laptop and plugging it in. He was hoping, vaguely, that he could find something relating to this bizarre phenomenon online, though he wasn't sure what he should even be searching for.

"Okay, so. Increased sexual energy," he muttered, typing the phrase into a search engine.

"Looking for porn?" Chris's voice, teasing, rang out behind him. JC ignored him.

Unfortunately, all of the sites that came up seemed to reference either porn, to Chris's delight, or advertisements for Viagra. JC growled and tried to think of a way to rephrase the search. "I'm trying to figure out why we all attacked each other last night," he told Chris, who had draped his arms around JC's shoulders, resting his head to the left of JC's.

"Cause we were horny?" Chris suggested.

"Yeah, and Justin would fuck Lance just because he was horny," JC replied.

Chris's nod was thoughtful. "So what are you looking for?"

JC shrugged, or attempted to. "I don't know exactly. Maybe there was some reason behind it."

"You mean like a surge in whatchamacallit, like a sunspot or something? Or the planets in alignment?"

JC raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I just think there has to be a reason."

Chris slowly stood up, leaning back against the wall. JC didn't notice at first, clicking through different sites, then going back when they didn't provide any useful information. "So you, you didn't like it," Chris said.

"No, that's not it," JC muttered, only half paying attention. "Just seemed strange to me. You know?"

"I guess not," Chris said, but he had disappeared before JC could think to question Chris's oddly disturbed tone of voice.

* * *

JC searched for a while longer, until he couldn't keep his eyes open and finally went to crash in his bunk. It was empty, and he didn't know whether to be pleased or disappointed by that. At least the others were being quiet, whatever they were doing now. They'd made a quick change at a truck stop, letting Lance back onto his and Joey's bus, and Chris and Justin had been silent since then.

Laying down, JC wondered idly if it had been just that, that they were horny. Chris's suggestion wasn't wholly invalid. It wasn't like he'd never wondered about how Joey kissed, or what Justin was like in bed. Certainly he'd nurtured a strange sort of crush on the kid back when they were on MMC and he was fawned after by all the girls. But he'd never done or said anything, and those feelings had been dormant so long that he'd thought them dead, been surprised when they surged to life in one bright moment.

Chris's voice, now, that had been weird. He was drifting to sleep when it struck him how upset Chris had sounded: uncomfortable, as if he was hiding something. JC wasn't unfamiliar with the way Chris's tone would change when he had something he didn't want anyone to know. It wasn't that Chris wasn't a good liar; he was. But sometimes, JC knew, he'd want someone to find out, or the secret would just be too big -- like when he broke up with Dani and no one knew it for a month, but they could tell something had definitely happened from the way he withdrew from everyone for a while.

Suspicious, was JC's last thought before he fell asleep.

* * *

He didn't get a chance to follow up on it for a few days. Chris was always there, or he was always in his room -- not that JC knew what he would look for if he got the opportunity. And the charge of sexual energy still hung between them in the air, a palpable, crackling tension that energized the shows, flavoring every interview and press conference, even at the soundcheck parties where they had to be on their best behavior. JC tried to avoid it, but he thought that you had to be superhuman to resist Justin's mouth when he really wanted something, and JC knew himself to be far from superhuman.

Finally, though, after a soundcheck in Milwaukee, JC got his chance. The others were off in Lance's room; Chris had made him promise to join them, and he said he'd be along in a few minutes, but he'd managed to get the adjoining room to Chris's, and he wanted to take the chance before he lost it again.

"What the hell am I looking for, anyway?" he asked himself as he rooted through Chris's big suitcase, the monster-sized duffel bag that seemed to carry most of his possessions. All he could seem to find were dirty clothes, though. His eyes fell on a backpack that had been slung casually to the floor by the desk. "Hm."

A few books, Discman, CDs, a couple of notebooks, zip discs and Fuman paperwork. JC sighed, about to close the pack, when his hand fell on a small book buried underneath some loose papers. Curious, he tugged it out, paper scattering on the floor around him.

* * *

"Hey, Chris? We need to talk."

"Right now? I got a conference call with Dani in five minutes." Chris looked up from the paperwork strewn on the hotel room's desk.

"It won't take long," JC said, sitting down on the bed.

"Okay, what is it?"

He was the soul of congeniality now, and for a moment JC doubted the suspicions that had been haunting him since that first morning after everything had happened. Then he took a deep breath. Either way, this would be resolved.

"Why did you do magic on us?"

It was almost exactly what he'd expected to happen. Chris's eyes went wide, a glimpse of fear in them before they narrowed again. "Dude, I only have one question for you: where'd you get the pot, because that must be some good shit--"

"I'm not fucking around, Chris." JC dipped into his pocket, producing a small sheaf of papers. He hated to make it obvious that he'd gone through Chris's stuff, but he didn't know what else to do.

"That's my personal property, C, what the fuck--"

"I had to know, Chris. I'm sorry. It was just bothering me too much."

"And you went through my shit? What the hell made you think I did it?"

At least he wasn't denying it now. "It was -- I don't know, Chris, just something about the way you got so antsy when I started looking for a reason for this."

"Fuck." Chris got up, tore the papers out of JC's hand. "What else did you find?"

"This was it, I swear." JC was starting to think that this was one of his worse ideas, as ideas went. "I just--"

"Fuck," Chris said again, and JC sighed, scrubbed a hand through his hair.

"You weren't supposed to know," Chris said, in a quieter voice. "You weren't supposed to -- to find out."

"How did you think we wouldn't? Why -- I mean, why the fuck did you do it?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"I." Chris sat down again, hard. One hand worked at the corner of the folded papers. "I just found it and. I wanted to try it out."

"You were just trying _magic_?" JC's voice rose in disbelief, and Chris looked up, frantic.

"I didn't think it was going to work!" he wailed.

"Well, fuck, Chris, what the hell did you expect?"

"I don't know," he said again, and his eyes were lost. This was not a side of Chris that JC was used to. "It was. I thought it would just be for fun. Ha ha, I did a love spell on you guys, and then it worked and I don't know why and I just wanted to enjoy it in case I woke up the next day and it was a bad dream."

"Fuck," JC said softly.

"yeah."

JC took a deep breath, putting his hands in his hair. "Look--" he started, hesitated. "I'm, I am sorry. It's just -- fuck, I don't know. I need to think about it," he said.

"What about the others?"

"Oh, you're going to tell them," and his voice was just edging into anger again.

"The fuck I am--"

"Shut up, Chris. You're in no position to talk right now. You fucked with them and didn't even tell them. How fair is that?"

Chris stared blankly at JC, wondering for a moment if the spell had given him unusual articulation, or if it was just anger clarifying his usually scattershot thoughts.

"All right," Chris said, resigned.

* * *

"Uh, so you're telling me that--"

"Yeah."

"It was magic."

"Yeah."

"No," Justin said, just before he got up and left the room. Chris stared after him, resembling a kicked puppy. Joey stared at Lance. Lance stared at the floor.

"Well, this is in no way awkward," JC muttered.

"I'm sorry, you guys, I--"

"Yeah, we know." Joey got up suddenly and went after Justin.

Chris buried his face in his hands.

* * *

The tension changed after that, became something strained and heavy, uncomfortable distance settling between them. JC hated it, hated the fact that he'd helped create it, even though he knew he wasn't truly at fault. But he knew that he'd enjoyed it just as much as they had, and he'd had as little right to change things. And overall, it kind of made him feel like a tattletale.

"He fucked with our heads, that's what bugs me more than anything," he explained to Lance one afternoon, in the privacy of the Quiet Room.

"I know," Lance said. "Still--"

"Yeah." JC sighed. "I kind of miss it too."

"Kind of?" Lance raised an artful eyebrow, and JC gave him a half-smile.

"Well. I guess it wasn't like anything we probably wouldn't have eventually done all along."

Lance smirked. "I know I've wanted your ass for a while now, Chasez."

"Really." JC felt a grin twist his lips. "So why didn't you say something?"

"Didn't want to fuck things up."

"True."

* * *

A few days later, Chris was cautiously optimistic when Justin approached him in the bus.

"How did you do it?" Justin asked, betraying a hint of curiosity rather than the animosity Chris had been expecting.

"It's a thing from a book I bought, at that used bookstore we went to in Michigan," Chris said. "I can show you, if you--"

"No, that's all right," Justin said. "But. I'm just. I didn't think shit like that was real."

"Me either," Chris said honestly. "Fuck, I thought it was a big joke, so. You know?"

"Yeah." Justin leaned against the wall, opposite the bunk where Chris sat. "So. Uh. Why?"

"Why..?"

"Why did you do it," Justin repeated, with a hint of annoyance entering his tone.

Chris looked down, scratching the back of his head. "The, uh, the spell was supposed to release inhibitions and bring out hidden desires. So I guess I kind of wanted to have my wicked way with y'all, and all that."

He was expecting some sort of angered reaction, so he was admittedly surprised when, instead, Justin lifted Chris's chin in his fingers, his eyes dark with emotion.

"Dude, you should have just said something," he said, and kissed Chris.

"What," Chris said when he had breath to speak again. "'Hey, Justin, I want to fuck your brains out'?"

Justin's trademark smirk quirked the corner of his mouth. "Well, not the most subtle approach, but no one ever gave you any credit for subtlety."

"Oh, you're one to talk, mister--"

"Dude, do you want to argue or you want to fuck?"

It didn't take long for Chris to make up his mind.

* * *

Joey sat down next to him in the toy room, a couple of days later, after the others had absorbed the fact that Justin and Chris had, most emphatically, resumed relations.

"Magic, huh?" Joey said softly, and Chris glanced away from the television screen and his video game to focus on Joey's serious face.

"Yeah," he said.

"I still don't get it. I mean, Jup told me how the spell worked, but--" Joey shook his head. "How did it work?"

"I wish I knew," Chris said.

"Can you do anything else?"

"I burned all the stuff." He had, too, in the bathroom sink of his hotel room, the day JC had found out. "I don't -- I don't want to try anything else, 'cause, I mean, I don't know if something else will happen."

"Probably a good idea." Joey bumped him with a shoulder. "So is that why you kissed us that day?"

"Yeah, that was how to enact the spell. I thought if I just did it, you know, like I was being silly, y'all wouldn't think it was weird."

"Weirder than normal," Joey amended. Chris gave him a smile -- a faint, spare one, a shadow of its normal self -- but at least it was a smile.

"I guess. I guess it's okay," Joey said. "I mean, Lance has kinda been wishing something would happen for a while, and, I can't say I've never wondered what it would be like to be with you--"

"Really?" Chris said, surprised.

"--but, Chris, you gotta promise you'll never pull shit like that again, okay?" Joey turned a little on the sofa, giving Chris his full attention. "I mean, you don't know what it was like -- it was cool and all, but it kinda felt like someone else was in control of my body and. That was just a little too weird, okay? So--"

"I promise I won't do it ever," Chris said fervently, and Joey nodded, satisfied. Chris let his gaze soften, turn speculative, wandering over Joey thoughtfully. "So you wondered, huh?"

"Well. Yeah." Joey looked down, then back up to meet Chris's gaze with eyes gone darker somehow. "Kinda."

"We could, uh."

"Yeah."

They ended up locking the door to the Quiet Room for an hour, at the end of which the others were banging on the door and the room smelled like sex. Afterwards, they composed themselves, smiled at each other, and unlocked the door to let the others in.

* * *

"So, apology accepted?" a sated Chris asked a little bit later. The others nodded, and he leaned back, relieved, into the curve of Joey's arm.

"Just don't pull any shit like that again," Justin advised him, a gleam in his eye suggesting Chris wouldn't get off so easily the next time.

"Cross my heart," Chris said.

"All right, come on," Lance said, standing.

"Maybe we should have a new tradition instead of hackey before the shows," Chris offered, as they got into the circle. "Group sex instead of a group hug."

"Fuck off, Kirkpatrick."

"Maybe later, if you ask me nicely."


End file.
